Why do I RFL?  I’ve been trying to write this for 2 weeks….seems like an easy task…not so much.  When I saw this challenge on the Fantasy Fair website, I thought I could whip it out in a half hour.   Every time I’d start the tears would begin, the heart would constrict.  How do you define why you fight …how do explain your heart breaking for others?

My first experience with someone close to me dying of cancer was traumatic. My favorite professor in college, Dr. Craig, taught me to love geology and teaching…I changed my major in the last semester before graduating and then went on to get a masters just to take all of his classes.  He was my teacher, my mentor, and down the road…my friend.  I was standing in homeroom when a fellow teacher came in and told me he had lost his fight with stomach cancer over night…he had only been diagnosed a month before.  I broke down and cried in front of 30 teenagers…I still tear up every time I look at his picture on my desk at home.

I had a brain tumor several years ago.  Strangely, it never bothered me…I never doubted my mortality (I’m probably not psychic…just stupidly naïve).  I was never afraid…my family panicked, my friends were freaking out…I wanted the screw that they used to bolt my head to the C-clamp during surgery.  I got through okay, although it’s been trying to creep back…I’ve had some really fun treatments lately (kidding…no fun at all) and I go for yet another MRI in a few weeks to see if we kicked ass.  Still, aside from the occasional nausea and lowered immune system, I feel good and hardly ever think about it.

My best friend Gary….better known as Darth Kline in SL….lost a kidney to cancer not even a year ago.  His still struggles every day and fights for every little bit of health possible.  He can’t work anymore and he’s about to lose his beloved sim, Lennon Park.  His life revolves around doctor visits and meds, yet he continues to make me laugh every day when we talk with his unique take on life and his ridiculous (sick) sense of humor.  I try to be strong for him, but I cry every time I think about the burden he carries.  I want so badly to save him….to make everything better.  I want to turn back the clock to last summer when his biggest concern was figuring out a way to tell me he had gotten into an event as a blogger and I hadn’t.  He appears to be strong, I highly suspect he isn’t.  He is the reason I RFL…because I can.

As the Fantasy Faire closed the other day, the talk in the group was the astounding amount that had been raised over the 11 days….a bit above seven and half million lindens, which translates to over 30,000 US dollars…how amazing is that?!  Another amazing year and so many memories to cherish…

+ Lamb. Miss Mabel – Variety/Ombre/Eccentric RARE
Bliensen + MaiTai – Soleil Crown
The Dark Fae’s Slither Dress
TDF’s Fantasy Faire Kobold
MoD – Giant Sylvan Lake Snake
Loka Design ~ 3 Tentacles Offsim

Del May Salute pose